Active Minds
Active Minds is a national leader for young adult mental health advocacy and suicide prevention. Active Minds programs and services empower students to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, create communities of support, and ultimately save lives. Below are some highlighted resources, see website for all resources:
Program: A.S.K-Acknowledge, Support, Keep-in-Touch A.S.K is a guide to how to respond to everyday troubles in a helpful way. For many situations, you don’t have to be an expert to help – you just have to be there. Have a conversation to let someone know, I’m here for you, and then refer them to additional sources of support.
Project LETS
Project LETS is a national grassroots organization and movement led by and for folks with lived experience of mental illness/madness, Disability, trauma, & neurodivergence. They build peer support collectives, lead political education, develop new knowledge and language around mental distress, organize and advocate for the liberation of our community members globally, and create innovative, peer-led, alternatives to our current mental health system.
Peer Mental Health Advocates Model The Peer Mental Health Advocate (PMHA) model was developed by Project LETS -- PMHAs are college students with lived experience of mental illness, trained to provide confidential plus free peer counseling and advocacy services. PMHAs provide assistance with daily management, social and emotional support, coping skills, linkage to clinical plus community resources and crisis services.
PMHA Chapters
The Jed Foundation
The Jed Foundation is a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation's teens and young adults. JED is leading the way to a comprehensive, community-based model of protecting student emotional health and preventing suicide at schools across the country. Working with campus leaders and professionals, JED helps to create campus-wide prevention and intervention strategies and advises on best-practice mental health policies, programs and services. Their website is full of resources and programs for students in college, high school, and their families and communities. Below are some highlighted resources:
Webinar - JED'S Comprehensive Approach: Integrating the Equity in Mental Health Framework
The Steve Fund
The Steve Fund is the nation’s only organization focused on supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of young people of color. Along with the Jed Foundation they offer resources such as the Equity in Mental Health Framework to help colleges/universities support the mental health of students of color.
Young, Gifted, At-Risk and Resilient: A Video Toolkit to Support the Wellbeing of Students of Color Scholars and practitioners have informed this effort through a holistic approach. Understanding the space and place in which students of color operate provides us with a lens to examine the multiple dimensions of students’ academic and social contexts on and around their campuses. This includes not only the physical components of campus climate, but also the virtual contexts that impact students’ sense of belonging.
For Students
To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA)
To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.
Starting a UChapter: TWLOHA UChapters is a network of student organizations on college and university campuses that exists to embody the mission and vision of TWLOHA. Through on-campus events, programming, and fundraising initiatives, each chapter serves as a voice of inspiration and education for their peers. See link for details on how to apply and establish a UChapter at your university.
TWLOHA Blog: Blog posts about a variety of mental health, depression and suicide topics from people with lived experience.